Pineville hospital layoffs OK’d

Pineville hospital layoffs OK’d

State Civil Service director Shannon Templet has approved an employee layoff plan associated with the closure of LSU’s hospital in Pineville.

The plan involves abolition of 123 positions at Huey P. Long Medical Center which is scheduled to close June 30.

The hospital is the third LSU facility to close as a result of a Jindal administration plan to move public hospital care into private control. The management and operation of six other LSU hospitals has been taken over by various private hospitals and employees lost their state jobs. Only LSU’s Lallie Kemp Medical Center in Independence remains a public hospital.

LSU officials said the layoff was necessary “because of lack of funds due to a reduction in federal funding” for the hospital.

As Templet approved the plan, she also implemented a hiring freeze in Rapides Parish for job titles abolished in the layoff and equivalent or lower job in the affected career fields and commuting area. The freeze ends when LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport provides Civil Service with a Department Preferred Reemployement List, she said.